SIT DOWN PLEASE

As I sit at this computer, we are in shock that we are even writing these words! I am trying to decide how to even begin. When we arrived home with Kate, we knew that we would not pursue another adoption. We have three beautiful daughters and we felt peace with that. However, we also said that if God laid some miracle in our lap, we would be willing. Last year, as many of you remember, an infant girl and her mom came to live with us. We wondered if this was God putting something in our laps but we quickly learned the answer was no and instead, we got to be a part of a process of watching another couple become parents for the first time. That little girl is 16 months old, and while nothing is official yet, she resides with this family and is doing so well. So we have continued being at peace with our family. In lighthearted moments, I have reminded Drew that we always said we wanted 1 or 4 and we were short a child. He would laugh and say people change.... Other times we talked about IF we were to adopt, we would want an older child- about 5 or 6 years old. Drew again thought I was crazy but agreed because hey- we weren't going to adopt again anyway. About a year ago, I learned of an organization that is doing fabulous work in Uganda, Africa and we talked to the director about going over there one day and helping them. But we knew that at this time, we could not. Then over the past few months, we have had wonderful conversations with our friends Jason and Shelley and have gotten to watch God prepare their hearts to adopt two children from Ethiopia. Again, I teased Drew that we could get a little African child too. Ha ha! Drew laughed and said I haven't seen God dropping any children in our laps yet. All of this has been in fun conversations between us. What in the world would we do with 4 girls!!??? We have friends, Duane and Melissa that have adopted many times. Melissa is currently in Uganda bringing home two children- a boy and girl. Well the night before she left, I had not talked to her in a while and so being the sweet friend that I am, (ha), I called her the night before she left. We chatted for a while and then she said, Lori, they are looking for a family for a little girl that is 5-6 years old. I said jokingly, well stick her in your suircase and we will take her! We got off the phone and Drew and I looked forward to reading their blog of her journey to bring home Allaina and Andrew. Fast forward 10 days or so. This past Wednesday morning, I got up as I always do and checked my email. There was a message from K.C.- the president of this organization in Uganda. "Dear Lori- I got your information from Melissa. We have a child, "Agnes" that we wanted to see if you would be interested in adopting. Attached is her picture." That crazy Melissa I thought. But of course, I looked at the picture and the eyes on this little girl grabbed me!! But, still I laughed and told Drew to go see his 4th daughter on the internet. HE thought one of my Indian students was online! We laughed and I said, do you mind me emailing her? Sure he said. Now, Uganda requires a one month stay in country. So, I wrote- thank you for your letter. Agnes is adorable. We cannot travel to Uganda for a month at this time in our lives. Does your country allow escort services? Thursday morning, came this reply. No, the Ugandan government would never allow an escort service. She went on to talk about the law and mentioned that the granted guardian would have to escort the child out of the country. So, not to bore you with the next 5 emails and phone conversations, we learned that Uganda does not grant adoption status in country. You are given guardianship of the child and then adopt in country. We requested that Melissa be given that status and then us readopt here as a domestic adoption. We knew they would say no. They said yes. Other countries do the same thing. So, we have had several conversations with Melissa in Uganda and they are willing to do this. But, they have to get an expedited emergency ammendment that will allow them to bring home more children than their original form from immigration states. Also, the attorney over there will have to agree. We have spoke with people stateside and in Uganda and there are no problems doing this because of the way their laws are written. Also, the fees are considerably less, but if we are given the two "yes" that we need, we will have to send about $9800 to Uganda in a matter of days. We do not have it. We are still paying on the expenses of our other two adoptions as most adoptive families do! So, here are our prayers- that God do this- totally. We are helpless. We are in shock and we need wisdom. You would not believe all the crazy things I threw out there knowing that they would say no. They keep saying yes. Drew and I keep saying WE ARE NOT TRYING TO DO THIS!!!!! In all seriousness, of course we want her to have a family, but is our family to be hers? Like I said, we are speechless.
Now, for the news about Agnes. Both of her parents are dead. She was found about a year ago, finding places to sleep wherever she could find shelter. They estimate she is about 5-6 years old because she said she had not been to school before. She is malnurished, but much healthier than when they found her a year ago. She has her permanent teeth on the top. She is bald headed right now! She is said to be shy, very sweet and does well in school. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up.
We will know something in the next 3 days or so. Melissa comes home on February 18! I will keep you posted. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for us. We need to know that people all over are praying for Agnes and for us to have an answer. Thank you.
She looks like a Jamieson doesn't she? Any K-name ideas???